which after a long course of experience induced them to ascribe a divine power to those stars, and to think themselves indebted to them for their rains, a very great benefit and refreshment to their parched country this superstition the Korân particularly takes notice of". The ancient Arabians and Indians, between which two nations was a great conformity of religions, had seven celebrated temples, dedicated to the seven planets; one of which in particular, called Beit Ghomdân, was built in Sanaa, the metropolis of Yaman, by Dahac, to the honour of al Zoharah, or the planet Venus, and was demolished by the Khalif Othman"; by whose murder was fulfilled the prophetical inscription set, as is reported, over this temple, viz. Ghomdân, he who destroyeth thee shall be slain. The temple of Mecca is also said to have been consecrated to Zohal, or Saturn*. Though these deities were generally reverenced by the whole nation, yet each tribe chose some one as the more peculiar object of their worship. Thus as to the stars and planets, the tribe of Hamyar chiefly worshipped the sun; Misam', al Debarân or the bull's eye; Lakhm and Jodâm, al Moshtari or Jupiter; Tay, Sohail or Canopus; Kais, Sirius or the dog-star; and Asad, Otâred or Mercury. Among the worshippers of Sirius, one Abu Cabsha was very famous; some will have him to be the same with Waheb, Mohammed's grandfather by the mother, but others say he was of the tribe of Khozaah. This man used his utmost endeavours to persuade the Koreish to leave their images and worship this star; for which reason Mohammed, who endeavoured also to make them leave their images, was by them nicknamed the son of Abu Cabsha". The worship of this star is particularly hinted at in the Koran. g V. Poc. Spec. p. 163. Shahrestani. h Shahrestani. i Al. Jannâbi. This name seems to be corrupted, there being no such among the Arab tribes. Poc. Spec. p. 130. m Abulfarag. p. 160 n Poc. Spec. p. 132. Cap. 53. Of the angels or intelligences which they worshipped, the Korân' makes mention only of three, which were worshipped under female names; Allât, al Uzza, and Manah. These were by them called goddesses, and the daughters of GOD; an appellation they gave not only to the angels, but also to their images, which they either believed to be inspired with life by GoD, or else to become the tabernacles of the angels, and to be animated by them; and they gave them divine worship, because they imagined they interceded for them with God. Allât was the idol of the tribe of Thakîf, who dwelt at Tayef, and had a temple consecrated to her in a place called Nakhlah. This idol al Mogheirah destroyed by Mohammed's order, who sent him and Abu Sofiân on that commission in the ninth year of the Hejra. The inhabitants of Tayef, especially the women, bitterly lamented the loss of this their deity, which they were so fond of, that they begged of Mohammed, as a condition of peace, that it might not be destroyed for three years, and, not obtaining that, asked only a month's respite; but he absolutely denied it. There are several derivations of this word, which the curious may learn from Dr. Pocock": it seems most probably to be derived from the same root with Allah, to which it may be a feminine, and will then signify the goddess. Al Uzza, as some affirm, was the idol of the tribes of Koreish and Kenânah", and part of the tribe of Salim*; others tell us it was a tree called the Egyptian thorn, or Acacia, worshipped by the tribe of Ghatfân, first consecrated by one Dhâlem, who built a chapel over it, called Boss, so contrived as to give P Poc. Spec. Cap. 53. q Ibid. $ Dr. Prideaux mentions this expedition, but names only Abu Sofiân, and mistaking the name of the idol for an appellative, supposes he went only to disarm the Tayefians of their weapons and instruments of war. See his life of Mahomet, p. 98. t Abulfeda Vit. Mohám. p. 127. "Spec. p. 90. w Al Jauhari, apud eund. p. 91. * Al Shahrestani, ib. rauzabâdi, ib. y Al Fi a sound when any person entered. Khâled Ebn Walid, being sent by Mohammed in the eighth year of the Hejra to destroy this idol, demolished the chapel, and cutting down this tree or image, burnt it: he also slew the priestess, who ran out with her hair dishevelled, and her hands on her head as a suppliant. Yet the author who relates this, in another place says, the chapel was pulled down, and Dhâlem himself killed by one Zohair, because he consecrated this chapel with design to draw the pilgrims thither from Mecca, and lessen the reputation of the Caaba. The name of this deity is derived from the root azza, and signifies the most mighty. Manah was the object of worship of the tribes of Hodhail and Khozâah, who dwelt between Mecca and Medina, and, as some say, of the tribes of Aws, Khazraj, and Thakîf also. This idol was a large stone, demolished by one Saad in the eighth year of the Hejra, a year so fatal to the idols of Arabia. The name seems derived from mana, to flow, from the flowing of the blood of the victims sacrificed to the deity whence the valley of Mina near Mecca had also its name, where the pilgrims at this day slay their sacrifices". Before we proceed to the other idols, let us take notice of five more, which with the former three are all the Koran mentions by name, and they are Wadd, Sawa, Yaghûth, Yäûk, and Nasr. These are said to have been antediluvian idols, which Noah preached against, and were afterwards taken by the Arabs for gods, having been men of great merit and piety in their time, whose statues they reverenced at first with a civil honour only, which in process of time became heightened to a divine worship. Wadd was supposed to be the heaven, and was z Al Jauhari. Zamakhshari. a Al Shahrestani, Abulfeda, &c. b Al Beidâwi, al d Poc. Spec. 91, &c. e Korân, c. 71. Comment. Persic. V. Hyde, de rel. vet. Pers. p. 133. worshipped under the form of a man by the tribe of Calb in Daumat al Jandal'. Sawâ was adored under the shape of a woman by the tribe of Hamadan, or, as others write, of Hodhail in Rohat. This idol lying under water for some time after the deluge, was at length, it is said, discovered by the devil, and was worshipped by those of Hodhail, who instituted pilgrimages to it". Yaghûth was an idol in the shape of a lion, and was the deity of the tribe of Madhaj and others who dwelt in Yaman'. Its name seems to be derived from gatha, which signifies to help. Yaûk was worshipped by the tribe of Morâd, or according to others, by that of Hamadan, under the figure of a horse. It is said he was a man of great piety, and his death much regretted; whereupon the devil appeared to his friends in a human form, and undertaking to represent him to the life, persuaded them, by way of comfort, to place his effigies in their temples, that they might have it in view when at their devotions. This was done, and seven others of extraordinary merit had the same honour shewn them, till at length their posterity made idols of them in earnest'. The name of Yäûk probably comes from the verb âka, to prevent or avertTM. Nasr was a deity adored by the tribe of Hamyar, or at Dhû 'l Khalaan in their territories, under the image of an eagle, which the name signifies. There are, or were, two statues at Bamiyân, a city of Cabul in the Indies, 50 cubits high, which some writers suppose to be the same with Yaghûth and Yäûk, or else with Manah and Allât; and they also speak of a third standing near the others, but something less, in the shape of an old woman, called Nesrem or Nesr. These statues were hollow within f Al Jauhari, al Shahrestani. h Al Firauzab. zabâdi, iShahrestani. m Poc. Spec. 94. * Idem, al Firauzabâdi, & Safio'ddin. 1 Al Firau k Al Jauhari. for the secret giving of oracles", but they seem to have been different from the Arabian idols. There was also an idol at Sûmenat in the Indies, called Lât or al Lât, whose statue was 50 fathoms high, of a single stone, and placed in the midst of a temple supported by 56 pillars of massy gold: this idol Mahmûd Ebn Sebecteghin, who conquered that part of India, broke to pieces with his own hands. Besides the idols we have mentioned, the Arabs worshipped also great numbers of others, which would take up too much time to have distinct accounts given of them, and, not being named in the Korân, are not so much to our present purpose; for, besides that every housekeeper had his household god, or gods, which he last took leave of, and first saluted, at his going abroad and returning home", there were no less than 360 idols, equalling in number the days of their year, in and about the Caaba of Mecca; the chief of whom was Hobal', brought from Belka in Syria into Arabia by Amru Ebn Lohai, pretending it would procure them rain when they wanted it. It was the statue of a man made of red agate, which having by some accident lost a hand, the Koreish repaired it with one of gold: he held in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as the Arabs used in divination. This idol is supposed to have been the same with the image of Abraham, found and destroyed by Mohammed in the Caaba, on his entering it, in the eighth year of the Hejra, when he took Mecca", and surrounded with a great number of angels and prophets as inferior deities; among whom, as some say, was Ismael with divining arrows in his hand also*. Asâf and Nayelah, the former the image of a man, the latter of a woman, were also two idols brought with Hobal from Syria, and placed the one on mount |